Night covers the day like a blanket. There is a serene scent in the air. Crickets and cicadas seem to be calling for someone. The birds have already disappeared from the sky as if abandoning it along with the sun.
The moon, seemingly enjoying the view, shines brightly over the world. In this dark and peaceful night, a boy, around the age of fifteen can be seen roaming in the forest.
He is not holding a lamp or fire to light the area. However, his eyes seem to be able to look at everything. He is looking around and walking quietly.
His footsteps were so silent that
They tread where shadows gently fall,
In the quiet of the night,
Leaving not a single mark,
But memories out of sight.
This boy is looking around, avoiding the people guarding the area.
He seems to be wandering without any purpose, or his purpose, too, is silent.
After two hours, the boy returns back to his inn, quietly enters the room, and sleeps after examining his body.
The next morning, the sun shines brightly, unaware of what happened at night.
Yang Zhai is cultivating in a quiet room. He is pulling the purified rays together and making a small black sphere. After a while, a small one-inch black sphere completely forms.
This black sphere will have to grow to the size of a foot for Yang Zhai to start forming another star.
These days, almost everyone uses the aperture to continue forward. In fact, this method had been forgotten because of its difficulty. This forgetting of the method was called by some idiocy, some called this no way was left, and a few even called it someone's interference.
A person with physique would take at least one month to form one star, and four months for four stars. After that, combining them into a line would take another month. This way, it would take almost two years for a person with a physique to advance to rank 5, and that too only if cultivated daily.
As for the ones without physiques? It depended on how much they could store the purified rays within the void formation. As such, it became a nightmare to cultivate with the black sun.
With the amount Yang Zhai could store, it would take him at least four to five months to create a single star, adding up to more than two years to make one line. And that, too, if he went for it without a fifth star.
However, even the Black Sun cultivation has a condition. If a person cultivates with Black Sun, they would need to develop four stars before combining them into a line. But, if a cultivator wants to obtain Perfect Stage, they would need to create five stars instead of four, consuming a lot of time.
So, it would take him almost more than two years to make a single line, and that too if he cultivated a few hours daily. As such, it would take him more than a whole decade to advance to rank 5.
In his previous life, with his meager talent, it took him many years to advance to rank 5. At that time, he was using aperture to create lines. And using aperture to create lines is said to be relatively easier compared to void cultivation.
The path Yang Zhai chose was filled with thorns: whether it was the body cultivation or void cultivation. As such, advancing the Strength Ka was of utmost importance. Also, it would be more beneficial to him if the aperture could become a second black sun as soon as possible.
Yang Zhai opens his eyes after creating the black sphere. He had 117 low-grade essence stones and 17 mid-grade essence stones left.
Yang Zhai walks out of the inn and comes to the bazaar¹. He walks around, seemingly searching for something. After a while, he stops in front of a stall. It looks like he found what he was looking for.
"Dad, his face is so scary."
A boy says with fear while looking at Yang Zhai. This draws Yang Zhai's attention and he looks at the boy.
This boy seemed to be around seven years old. Even though Yang Zhai had burnt his face slightly, it still was burnt.
Not just the boy, but almost all the bystanders tried to avoid Yang Zhai. A person who was different from others would always be secluded and shunned by society.
Yang Zhai ignores the boy and goes on to what he is doing. However, he feels something and looks at the boy. He sees that the boy throws a rock at him.
Yang Zhai grabs it and throws it to the side.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
His dad shouts at his son for what he did just now.
Yang Zhai walks closer to the boy. However, the boy, scared, tries to run but falls to the ground.
Yang Zhai sits down and slowly extends his hand forward.
Wah!!!
The boy starts to cry loudly. The bystanders are looking at this; everyone is sacred. To them, it seemed like Yang Zhai would beat this boy. Their opinion about Yang Zhai has already been built.
However, just before Yang Zhai could touch the boy, his wrist was grabbed by a hand.
"What are you doing?"
Yang Zhai looks up and sees a girl, who seems around 17 years old. Her hair extended to her waist and was white. Her eyes are purple in color. Her Hanfu is sky-colored with pink flower patterns.
She doesn't seem to be scared of Yang Zhai's appearance. Behind her is a boy who also seems to be around the same age as the girl. He has black, long hair that also extends to his waist. He is wearing a black Hanfu with blue snake patterns on it.
Beside her is a girl, also around the same age. She has black long hair as well. Her eyes, deep black. She is wearing a snow-white Hanfu with blue color lines extended throughout her Hanfu.
The girl releases his hand, then grips the boy by the shoulders and helps him to his feet.
"Are you fine? Did he do something to you?"
The girl asks the boy.
"You! What were you doing to that little boy?!" The boy grabs Yang Zhai's right wrist and asks him strictly.
As these three were not present when this all happened, they all misunderstood, or they didn't even try to understand involuntarily.
"I would appreciate it if you could use your words instead of your hands." Says Yang Zhai nonchalantly.
"So that you could run, right?" Replies the boy.
It wasn't that they were unwilling to listen to Yang Zhai, but rather that, due to their lack of understanding of the situation, they were taking precautions to prevent him from running away.
Yang Zhai grabs the boy's hand and removes it from his wrist forcefully.
When the boy felt Yang Zhai's strength, he was surprised. He had thought that Yang Zhai was weak compared to him.
This boy. Even though I can feel that he is not a body cultivator, his strength is not that weak: Yang Zhai considers it while freeing his wrist.
Cultivators don't use body-type kas recklessly to buff their body or strength, why? They are like drugs; if someone overdoses them without their body being able to withstand them, it would only get ruined and strike at an unknown moment. Thus, body cultivation is far more difficult than one might imagine: Yang Zhai is contemplating.
In body cultivation, four things are very important: good foundation, constant body strengthening, constant strength increase, and tear and healing, meaning a lot of pain. Thus, a lot of practice was needed.
This boy's body was not like it experienced much, so how could he have so much strength?
It seems like he is using Kas to buff his strength without knowing the consequences. At this rate, his body will break down with the passage of time: Yang Zhai is reflecting nonchalantly.
Even rank 5 range cultivators had lower strength than rank 4 body cultivators as they knew the consequences. Even Yang Zhai's current physical strength was more than Tai Qi, a rank 5. It could be felt that body cultivation was not to be messed with.
/!*****!*****!/
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